About

OUR MISSION

Active for Life is a Canadian not-for-profit social enterprise founded by B2ten. We are a national initiative created to help parents give their children the right start in life through the development of physical literacy.

OUR STORY

Active for Life was born in a cottage in the Laurentian Mountains in the spring of 2010, where the leadership team of B2ten met to debrief after Canada’s success at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. They realized that winning medals is wonderful but if those medals aren’t inspiring kids to be active then what was their true value? The B2ten team soon determined that Canadian kids were less active and less involved in sport than ever before. The inactivity and sedentary behaviour were making Canadian children sick.

B2ten became dedicated to reversing this negative trend in kids’ health. They created Active for Life and gathered a team to inspire and offer solutions.

In AfL’s search for those solutions we talked to many experts and parents. The recognized leaders in the field of children’s sport and activity, like those at Canadian Sport for Life, told us that there was one simple thing that could turn the tide: physical literacy.

When we spoke to parents, we learned that while moms and dads were aware of the alarming statistics and the crisis in children’s health, they were overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do to make a difference in their kids’ lives.

We connected the pieces of the puzzle and reached the following conclusions:

Physical literacy is one simple solution to help kids become more active, healthy, and successful for life.

OUR TEAM

Richard Monette(Lead of AfL, e.g. everything)

What was your favourite subject in school and why?
Everything. A professor once called me a “renaissance man”. It’s a great description of my perspective on school and learning in general.

What’s your favourite family tradition and why?
We dress up to watch the Academy Award or “Oscars”. My wife wears her wedding dress every year!

What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned during your time with Active for Life?
Unfortunately our society has changed so much in such a short period of time when it comes to children’s level of play and physical activity. The change has been so sudden from active play outside to inactive play inside that parents have a hard time grasping the situation.

Blaine Kyllo(content)

What’s your favourite way to be active and why?
Anything with my kids. We ride bikes and hike in the forest near our home. We kick balls and throw discs, we swim and we play in the snow. “Tickle monster” and playground “troll tag” are favourites.

What’s your favourite family tradition and why?
Riding bikes to school almost every day makes sure that the kids get some good physical activity in the morning so they’re ready for learning. It also means we don’t have to contribute to the motor vehicle madness that happens at so many schools these days.

What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned during your time with Active for Life?
I’ve realized that surrounding myself with smart, competent, talented people makes *me* better. I’ve also learned that, sometimes, the best you can do is the best you can do.

Sara Smeaton(content, social media)

What’s your favourite childhood memory and why?
Giggling, at inappropriate times, with my brother, a habit which lasted all through childhood and beyond. A well-timed nose flare can still set us off.

What’s your favourite time of day and why?
Definitely morning. I generally start each day hopeful, optimistic, and productive but by the time 9 p.m. rolls around, I transform into a grumpy old troll who’s most likely passed out on the couch muttering “I’m done” in my sleep.

What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned during your time with Active for Life?
Active for Life has been like a multi-disciplinary graduate program for me. And I am most grateful for all of my teachers.

Jim Grove(content, professional resources, social media)

What’s your favourite way to be active and why?
Playing soccer and hiking. Through soccer, I experience social connection, fun, fitness, and a never-ending brain puzzle in the actual playing of the game – the brain part is very important to me. Through hiking, I reconnect with nature on a regular basis and find my “source”.

What’s your favourite time of year and why?
I like every season, but summer probably wins by a nose. I just about live outdoors between gardening, hiking, camping, coaching, and playing soccer.

Do you have a nickname?
The Professor, or simply Professor. I’ve been repeatedly given this name in different school, work, and social settings by completely unrelated friends and colleagues since I was about 10 years old.

Emilie Roy(French content, social media)

What’s your favourite way to be active and why?
I do intensive training in road cycling, but since I’m not an Olympic athlete, my coach included my little pleasures in my training plan, such as ice hockey, ball hockey, the golf, etc.

What was your favourite subject in school and why?
When I was little, I loved school and I would have a hard time choosing a subject. Physical education absolutely, mathematics, and art to express myself.

What’s your favourite vacation spot and why?
Cuba, without a doubt … and Tucson, Arizona! Cuba for the people – so loving, warm – and for the simplicity and beauty of the landscapes, and Arizona for the dry climate and the most beautiful places to ride a bike!

David Arsenault(professional resources)

What’s your favourite way to be active and why?
Besides doing any physical activity with my wife and children, I’d have to say doing Taekwondo with my students. I get to do the sport I love while seeing my students enjoy themselves and improve.

What’s your favourite time of day and why?
Family dinner is a great time for me. This is when we talk about how our days have gone and horse around.

What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned during your time with Active for Life?
I’ve learned how powerful it is to be part of a wonderfully diverse team of individuals who are all on the same mission. Despite us all being busy in many ways, we manage to pull off some pretty cool things together. I’ve learned that respecting and appreciating diversity is important in moving any cause forward.

Liz Smeaton(partnerships/outreach)

What’s your favourite vacation spot and why?
Anywhere where good food, family, and friends are hanging.

What’s your favourite childhood memory and why?
Playing Lucy in the production of “Charlie Brown”; my world opened up to the possibility of being involved in the arts.

What’s your favourite time of day and why?
My favourite time of day is evening. Time with family and checking in on how the day unfolded. I always ask the questions: “Did you laugh today and how was lunch”?

Lynn Jobe(partnerships/alliance)

What was your favourite subject in school and why?
I loved biology as well as anatomy and physiology. Learning about how my body works was always interesting to me!

What is your favourite vacation spot and why?
Australia was a family trip that we’ll never forget. From the beaches of the Gold Coast to snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef to soaring in a glider above Mount Buffalo National Park, the trip was filled with exciting adventures. Returning to Australia or perhaps heading to New Zealand is on my wish list.

What is your favourite family tradition and why?
When we lived in Ontario, a family hike was our Thanksgiving weekend tradition. We would gather as many members of our extended family as possible and typically we would hike along the Bruce Trail. Hiking along the limestone cliffs somewhere up the Bruce Peninsula overlooking a mottled canvas of trees with their fall colours with Georgian Bay as a backdrop made every hike special.

Jaime Neefs(content, social media)

What’s your favourite way to be active and why?
I love to play, coach and referee soccer! Each role lets me experience a different part of the game in an active way. I’ve also been practicing my frisbee skills, but that’s still a work in progress.

What was your favourite subject in school and why?
After I took Introductory Psychology in my first year at University I was hooked! I took almost every psychology course offered at my school and my favourite was Positive Psychology – the science of happy people!

What is your favourite family tradition and why?
My family loves sports and when I was younger we used to play “mini sticks” every night after dinner. I was the goalie and my Dad’s shoes were the net. Nowadays, my Dad and I take the ferry to Michigan and eat at our favourite pizza place. I dream about that pizza.

Sarah Parker(content)

What’s your favourite way to be active and why?
I love to ski. It’s something I’ve done my whole life and has been a big part of my social life as most of my friends ski too. My husband has also been a lifelong skier and snowboarder, so we can’t wait to get our young daughter out on the slopes and start taking family vacations!

What’s your favourite time of year and why?
September. I love the light at that time of year, and how it’s warm during the day and cool in the evening. I still always think of September as the time of new beginnings. Even though summer is still trying to linger on, the transition of the season feels hopeful.

What was your favourite subject in school and why?
English, always. I’ve loved to write since I was kid and it’s always come naturally to me.

OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The growth of both AfL and public awareness of the term “physical literacy” (PL) has been astonishing and remains a testament to B2ten’s profound belief that getting kids moving is of vital importance to Canada. Here are some of the highlights from our past couple of years:

Alliances

Sport Canada, who believe that raising active children is important and that PL plays a key role, join us as a financial supporter.

The RBC Kids Pledge is the Royal Bank’s five-year, $100M commitment to improve the well-being of one million kids and youth. As part of this pledge they have chosen Active for Life as one of the programs that they support in order to meet this objective.

The Physical Literacy Alliance was launched in late 2013 with the goal of promoting PL education and programming across Canada and is committed to:

Providing quality PL programming for our community, and supporting similar programs across Canada.

Educating parents, families, and media on the importance of PL.

Providing parents and families with practical PL resources.

Developing best practices for PL professionals through sharing and dialogue.

Outreach

We’re committed to equipping professionals who work with children with the tools and resources they need to provide high quality PL programming:

Our lesson plan builder, has simplified the process for daycares, programmers, and educators to easily incorporate fun PL games into their programs.

Grow Your Program, provides tools for those delivering PL programming to educate their communities of parents about the importance of PL.

Role Models

We’ve launched a new Role Models program that will help us reach more Canadian parents by amplifying our message. We’re excited about the number of influential Canadian parents and elite athletes that make up our team of Role Models.

Online Magazine

Since 2012, Active for Life has built a full-fledged media organization, publishing more than one thousand original articles in both English and French. Our top articles have been shared up to three thousand times and seen almost one million times.

Social Media

Our social media channels have experienced tremendous growth since we first launched, expanding our community, reach, and engagement. Taken together, we have the ability to reach upwards of ninety thousand parents through our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube accounts.

Active For Life

Active for Life is the place where parents go to learn about activities for kids. Physical education leads to physical literacy, which is critical for child development. Physical literacy also gives active kids the best chance to someday compete in high-performance sport. Kids activities are organized here by age and gender, so parents can find fun and engaging ways of making sure their children get the recommended daily amount of physical activity. Activities for toddlers are aimed at the development of fundamental movement skills, while activities for children build on the fundamentals to establish more complex sport skills that can be used to play any number of sports and activities. Exercises for kids enhance their physical development. In the early stages of child growth, early childhood development is dependent on appropriate exercises for children. Because kids play is good for kids health.